It covers a lot of ground on this vital subject. But it misses a very important point.

This article joins others in framing the subject of "collective intelligence" in terms of (a) computerized, online, and other high-tech systems for (b) collective information gathering, forecasting, etc., (c) to empower marketing, investment strategies, consumerism, productivity, activist impact, government control, or people's general ability to track each other, individually or collectively.

But I suggest that collective intelligence is so much more than a way for one part of a whole system -- government agencies, advertisers, investors, activists -- to predict, control, track, or manipulate other parts of the system -- competitors, enemies, consumers, citizens, etc.

I had an interesting conversation about choice today with my friend and colleague Adin Rogovin. We noticed that increased choice may increase or decrease happiness. Choice -- seen by most people as supporting happiness -- can be overwhelming, or false, or of poor quality. Lack of choice -- normally thought of as a source of unhappiness -- can make life simple, supporting happiness if one's life situation is otherwise satisfying. (And, of course, there is the variable of one's choice of attitude about life. Openhearted acceptance of "what is" supports happiness, while fighting it can generate suffering. But this is another totally separate variable.)

If we deconstruct choice into its components -- creating options, recognizing them, identifying a "right" option, and then selecting it -- we open up a whole other area of evolutionary inquiry.

A few days ago I stumbled on a new model for whole-system intelligence inspired by some work my friend Peggy Holman is doing with Journalism that Matters. These journalists are reexamining the kinds of stories they tell and their role in democracy, especially in light of how the rise of bloggers and other citizen journalists challenges mainstream media. Journalism that Matters is trying to revision that challenge into a create leap for the whole field.

I suspect this model is a draft and will shift over the coming months. This original version takes the form of four overlapping circles -- INFORMATION, CONVERSATION, VISION, and ACTION -- arranged in a circle such that they flow round and round to generate collective intelligence -- an iterative, creative, collective learning cycle. Here's how it goes:

In addition to its immediate relevance for our personal behaviors and health and as a public health issue, this report from The Ecologist on "The Gathering Brainstorm" of damaging Wi-Fi impacts, includes the sentence "The technology is now moving far faster than it can be tested or regulated."

Should the media and the legal system protect unethical powerholders who illegally leak information as part of their power manipulations? If they are protected, doesn't that degrade democracy? If they are exposed, wouldn't that make ethical whistleblowers less likely to leak vital information to the public, also degrading democracy? The answers to these questions play out differently in a polarized adversarial political environment and in a culture of dialogue and deliberation.

One expects it to be a book about one conversational practice, The World Café, written by its co-founder. It is. And it isn't.

What it is -- most of all -- is an exploration of the power of conversations that matter -- ALL conversations that matter. It is also an exploration of the conditions under which questions that matter can be deeply and productively explored.

My July 6 Washington Post headlines email contains this item: "Are a Nominee's Views Fair Game?": "White House and Senate Democrats headed toward a collision yesterday over the role ideology should play in the selection of the next Supreme Court justice, outlining a key conflict that could define the nomination battle over a successor to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor." There's more than meets the eye here...

All forms of dialogue and deliberation serve our evolution into a culture of dialogue. Part of that evolution is the increased legitimacy and empowerment of forms that call forth more of society's collective intelligence and wisdom. As new forms of dialogue and deliberation demonstrate their effectiveness, they can be increasingly trusted by citzens and officials, and thus can (and should) become increasingly embedded in the institutions of social policy-making.

The increasing sophistication of dialogue and deliberation methodologies over the past two decades, combined with increasingly sophisticated communication and knowledge-management systems, as well as the spread of holistic philosophies and spiritual practices, suggests that we are rapidly increasing our ability to generate collective intelligence and wisdom through well-designed communications. We now face the task of bringing that capacity into the public trust and into official practice.

To clarify part of that developmental trajectory, we can map a spectrum (below) that reflects the growing empowerment and legitimization of citizen dialogue and deliberation. We can start with a category that embraces all types and qualities of such conversations and public engagements -- the ecosystem, if you will, of democratic discourse within which diverse species of dialogue and deliberation interact and evolve.

The Downing Street Memo story provides an object lesson in
(a) skewed media coverage -- especially when compared with the Michael Jackson story -- and
(b) the competitive dynamics between blogs and mass media.

I received an article from NHNE.com this morning, describing a liberal Christian response to conservative Christian political activism in the U.S. It reminded me that a number of competing visions are once again emerging within Christianity -- including evolutionary ones like Michael Dowd's Evolutionary Christianity.

However, what really struck me today was that this new group is not offering ordinary arguments for or against various policies and programs. They are doing what right-wing Christians do -- using Biblical references to defend their positions.

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